This invention relates to a device for keeping a seat belt buckled such that it cannot be released prematurely by a rider.
Seat belts save lives. Most persons wear seat belts and many states have enacted seat belt laws. Many laws require infant seats and child seats for persons below a specific weight. This device can be used with a seat belt alone or in combination with care seats, booster seats or harnesses used to retain passengers in a vehicle.
The problem addressed is that the belts can be released by bored or curious children or handicapped children and adults. The caretakers may not realize that the seat belt is unbuckled and this could increase the seriousness of injuries if involved in an accident. In the case of handicapped children or adults, the rider is coordinated enough many times to release the belt themselves, but not cognizant of the dangers of releasing the seat belt while riding in a moving vehicle. Other times, the riders may release the seat belt and amble about the moving vehicle or cause harm to other passengers, or interfere with the driver.
It is a serious problem when riders can release the seat belts themselves at inappropriate times. If the driver notices the belt is released they must then stop the vehicle and reattach the belt. This is inconvenient at the least and can require stopping on a busy street or highway posing a hazard to the person who exits the car, if necessary, to reattach the seat belt. If there is another assistant or adult, they must unfasten their belt and lean over the seat or walk back to re-attach the released belt. This is inconvenient, dangerous and time consuming.
When the belt is re-attached, the rider will many times release the belt again requiring attention, to once again re-attach the belt.
Several devices in the art have addressed this issue of retaining the seat belt in the attached position. All the art known addressed retaining seat belts in the attached position for buckles with the release button on the side of the buckle. Many of the newer vehicle seat belts, seat belt recalls and retrofits have the release button on the top of the buckle. While the embodiments disclosed are particularly effective for top release seat belt buckles, they can also be utilized on side release belt buckles. A user could use the device in multiple vehicles or while traveling on vacations in friends or rental vehicles and still deter the release of top or side release buckles.
The prior art is nonfunctional or less functional with buckles having the release button on the top of the buckle. Therefore, if a rider is traveling in a newer vehicle and coordinated enough to release the buckle this many times occurs with no known acceptable cost effective solution. Some of the prior art is made from hard materials such as plastic or metal which could inhibit the release of the seat belt in emergency conditions. This prior art can be hazardous if it is removed during travel and thrown around the vehicle. Other prior art necessitates the use of another object such as a key to release the seat belt. This too can be troublesome in an emergency situation.
The device disclosed herein has been tested on a particularly troublesome handicapped child who was very prone to releasing the seat belt when riding in a vehicle. Other methods and devices failed to retain the child buckled in the seat belt. This device has been successfully used and the child has not been able to remove themself from the seat belt.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a Release Resistant Seat Belt Buckle Cover that will inhibit the release of the seat belt on belts with the release button on the top of the buckle.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the prior art, there is a need for a device that will prevent a rider from releasing the seat belt of a top release belt buckle.